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QUICK - if it's 8.40 pm in New York what time is it in Kathmandu? The answer is 6.25 in the morning on the next day, just when the capital of Nepal is coming alive :
Market women laying out fresh greens and chilies both slender and stout, Buddhist and holy men lighting incense and lamps of clarified butter, the smog smothering the sibilance of street sweepers and the toll of temple bells.
Nepal's unique national time zone - five hours and 45 minutes ahead of Coordinated Universal Time - is but one manifestation of how fiercely the country guards its singularity :
Its flag made of twin triangles symbolizing the high Himalayas, is the only national pennant that is not a rectangle.
Nepal boasts its own calendar, too. In Kathmandu, the year is now 2083 - 56 years, eight months and change ahead of the Gregorian calendar and used in much of the rest of the world.
The pride that has birthed these distinct symbols of nationhood is rooted in Nepal's geography.
It's mountains and valleys, peopled by dozen of ethnic groups, are squeezed between India and China. It borders other Himalayan lands that were swallowed up by those larger nations.
When imperial powers carved up Asia, Nepal with its mountain-bred warriors, resisted.
'' This sense of national identity unites us, even though we are today speaking 123 languages in a country that is about the size of New York State,'' said Jaya Raj Acharya, a retired diplomat who served as Nepal's ambassador in the UN from 1991-1994.
Nepal's Standard Time was officially designated in 1986, 15 minutes ahead of India's time zone.
The declaration of national exceptionalism, displayed at a Kathmandu clock tower first built in 1894, seems believed by the populace even if it forces Nepalis to engage in quick arithmetic when traveling or settling meetings outside the country.
In Nepal, there's always an extra 15 minutes. Its unique time zone is just one expression of a singular national identity.
!WOW! thanks Hannah Beech.
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